Lets see, first there was the "what Tarot card are you" thing (see the earlier post http://reese.tolver.com/blog/2007/05/getting-more-done.asp), that we did for ourselves, then sent a link to a few other people, including Sky, who also shared his card on his blog ( http://thisskyisblue.deadjournal.com/ ). It seems to me that this particular web questionaire has been very accurate, for our extended family anyways. Since then Sky hasn't posted anything, but it is good to see him still online occasionally.

Then, our friend Bill Brent (http://authorsden.com/billbrent, http://litboy.typepad.com/) stayed with us for a few days. We knew Bill back in San Francisco, although admittedly only peripherally, through the house of the Golden Bull. Until, we and he moved to Big Island at about the same time, and have since been good friends, with plenty of shared experiences in the transition. Bill lives in Puna, and wanted to come to our side of the island for a community meeting on the future of Punalu'u (http://www.savepunaluu.org/), and since we drive back and forth all the time, he caught a ride with us, and surfed our sofa for a couple of days.

Now we are nearing the end of the flowering season, so there are fewer and fewer flowers to pick each week. We are finally getting some rain, if you can call it that; the rain gauge hasn't made it to 1/10th of an inch in any one day, but even these little rains save us from having to buy the water. Also, it seems just as we are running out of flowers for the season, we have started getting calls like crazy with new orders. Protea are becoming one of the current "in" things, and we are happy to provide, but they just don't bloom in June and July!

I have so many little projects going for the farm and the trust, that the paperwork on my desk is getting taller than what I am use to! Dad is relying on me more and more to handle the details of managing the future of the farm. For that I have mixed feelings, obviously I feel honored and proud that I can inspire such a sense of trust in me from others, but with it comes huge responsibilities that I find that I must constantly tap into what little self-confidence I do have to make it happen. Construction on the new room is progressing much slower than originally anticipated (who would have thought!), so who knows if I will ever catch up!

Speaking of the new room: the outside is basically finished, and even painted (although it will probably get another coat of paint before we declare it done.) And, Tolver is putting the the trim up in the vestibule as I am writing this, so we are close to declaring that done as well. Then we will seal the inner door to the new room and start the process of sanding and re-mudding the sheetrock in there. We have declared our first attempt in there as less than successful; so, if at first you don't succeed: make an even bigger mess! I promise more pictures when we are happier with the results, until then here's the finished outside and the vestibule.

We've gotten a little bit of outside encouragement for our own project from a Habitat for Humanity house being built one lot over from the house property. The family has been living on the lot in a tent since they started (Man, Woman, three girls of decreasing height, and a baby.) They will have a great view of our flowers, our driveway, and the roof of our house.

And finally, for this post anyways, Dad got 24 new piercings in the last week, doubling his previous number. I'm not going to tell you where! But eventually there will pictures up on his site (another project I have to find some time for) http://tribalguy.tolver.com